Asylum seeker 'brain dead after delay' in treatment for infection

Immigration correspondent

Hamid Kehazaei, 24, was medically evaculated to the mainland last week. Photo: Supplied

An asylum seeker who contracted a skin disease on Manus Island, has been announced brain dead by doctors in Brisbane's Mater Hospital.

The 24-year-old man, Hamid Kehazaei, was medically evacuated to the mainland last Thursday and was pronounced brain dead last night, according to refugee advocates.

Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said Mr Kehazaei's family were in the process of deciding whether to turn the life support machines off.

She also claimed there was a delay in transferring the man from Manus Island to the Australian mainland because a request from the medical service provider, the International Health and Medical Service, was denied.

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"After being denied a timely transfer, this young man is now lying brain dead in a Brisbane hospital," Senator Hanson-Young said.

"This young man cut his foot, it got infected and he wans't given the right medical help and it has developed into this severe septicaemia.

"This is a disgraceful lack of care given to this young Iranian man and a lack of duty of care being given by the Immigration Department."

A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison did not comment on the allegations of a delay, instead saying: "The government has consistently focussed on the care of this young man and his family, as well as respecting their privacy.

"These are our primary concerns.

"It is disappointing that the Greens have sought to politicise this very sensitive and serious matter in this way."

Refugee advocate Ian Rintoul claimed the compound on Manus Island where the man had cut his foot had been evacuated.

But the spokeswoman said: "This is simply not true."

On Wednesday morning, Mr Morrison also confirmed the man had not died.

"In respect to the family of the individual further details are not able to be provided," he said.

"The government is following normal processes for the adult male transferee. The family has been engaged."

On Friday, as the man was reportedly fighting for his life, the department said its chief medical officer was reviewing the background to the transferee's condition and medical care while at the Manus detention centre.

The standard of care provided by IHMS was called into question during the Australian Human Rights Commission inquiry into children in detention last month where evidence given to the inquiry showed the levels of medical care in immigration detention were often below Australian standards.

In May, a former Salvation Army staff member on Manus Island, Simon Taylor, claimed IHMS were giving asylum seekers a type of anti-malaria medication by staff that detention centre staff had been warned not to take.